Julian Edelman on Chiefs: ‘They’re defending champs for a reason’
By Matt Conner
Julian Edelman has a lot of respect for the Chiefs and their defensive unit.
The elder statesman of the New England Patriots offense knows a thing or two about winning a Super Bowl championship. In his 12-year career, wide receiver Julian Edelman has won three titles with the Pats—most recently in 2018 when he was named Super Bowl MVP. Perhaps that’s why he’s so respectful of the current defending champs.
The Patriots are visiting the Kansas City Chiefs this week, and Edelman had plenty of praise for K.C. as the teams prepare to face off in Week 4. In his remarks to reporters, Edelman said, “I think you have to be ready for everything” when playing the Chiefs. He then spoke highly of the defense he and his teammates will be facing on Monday evening.
"“They’ve got really good football players that get after the pass rush, they got great guys in the secondary, they got a couple safeties that are very instinctive, very good explosive players, and a knack for the ball, so it’s a very good defense,” Edelman continued. “They’re defending champs for a reason.”"
For the Chiefs, it’s the offensive side that often receives the lion’s share of the spotlight—a natural development given that the Chiefs employ the league’s best player in Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. However, it’s nice to see Edelman pay respect to impact players on the other side of the ball, since they are often overlooked when mentioning reasons why the Chiefs are such a formidable team.
After winning a Super Bowl in 2019, it’s clear that the team’s pass rush combo of Frank Clark and Chris Jones are becoming one of the league’s most respected tandems. Speaking of duos, Tyrann Mathieu and Juan Thornhill are also intimidating in the secondary and Edelman is thinking of both when making his comments.
Edelman is questionable to play with a knee injury—at least that’s how he’s been designated, per the Patriots injury report. However, he had the same designation last week and ended up playing in 81 percent of the Pats offensive snaps. He has 15 catches for 259 receiving yards so far this season.